Jan 22, 2012

The Mighty Spector: The rant.

What the heck is a Mighty Spector and what does it do?
The Mighty Spector is a Brand New Masters of The Universe Classics Figure made for the 30th Anniversary of the line. This line consists of: The Fearless Photog (The winner of the Original Create a Character Contest from the 80s) Draego-Man (a Super cool Kick-ass Humanoid Dragon made by the 4 Horsemen... Yes the same 4 Horsemen that made Bunny Ultron in ML and the Rest of the MOTU Classics line!), A Character designed by Mattel's Design team (Most likely by Terry Higuchi), a Character designed by Geoff Johns of DC Comics (Who has NOTHING to do with MOTU's 30 year-old history... That's a rant for another day), the Winner of the NEW Create a Character Contest (that is void in Puerto Rico and anywhere else outside the Continental 48 States)

and last but not least: The Mighty Spector
Oops! Wrong Spector!

THIS is the Spector I'm looking for!
Why does the name Spector sound so familiar... Where have I heard of him before?
You came back from that link to the past? Well, if so you're beginning to understand The Mighty Spector! You are still confused? Well, here's what I know so far!
The Mighty Spector is Lt. Spector. Yes, the Palace Guard with the face of Scott "Toyguru" Neitlich is The Mighty Spector.

Logistics song by do4m
I even made a song about him!! PINKIE PIE STYLE!!
Also The Tagline for TMS is Heroic Master of Time Travel.

I think that my Spider-Sense is Tingling...
Here's the thing: Mr. Neitlich is pretty much the author of the MOTUC Narrative, The Mighty Spector is an Avatar of himself inserted into the MOTU Mythology... This has all the signs of something AWFUL!! Heck Even The Mighty Spector's initials are similar to THE MARY SUE!
(Which Spector kinda reeks of...)
Does anyone remember a popular story about a Mary Sue who gains god-like powers?
If anyone is thinking about Apple Holding you just won a NO PRIZE!!

Spector has the potential of Out-Mary Sue-ing Bella Swan. THAT Scares me. Now if Spector is played as a bumbling sidekick who is forced to fix the mistakes he originally caused in the timeline (a little bit of self-depreciating humor would do wonders for Spector). Making him a super important key player in the storyline would be the Biggest mistake ever made.

As stated my biggest fear is Spector's place in the storyline...

Now I shall talk about his design.
Two Words: Liefeldian Nightmare!
Yes he is very similar to Deadpool... Even his creator is aware of it. To be fair he made it when he was a kid... Most of us, would have not made up a super cool design at a young age because we are not professional designers. On Spector's case it's rather obvious that it is NOT a professional design... Aside that it looks like it was made by Rob Liefeld.
I'm not saying this to "attack" Mr. Neitlich, but having an entire design team at his disposal and not use it to its full capacity kinda sucks, since the customer is the one who ends up paying for it.

Now design-wise Spector has a couple of problems:
He looks too Generic. The whole "Faceless" Mask gives him an army builder vibe.
His chest armor with oversized holster for gun looks Liefeldian and the color combination of Blue-ish purple AND Yellow screams X-Men!!
His name and Tagline do not define his appearance or action feature:
Fisto, he has a big fist.
Stinkor, he Stinks
Zodac: Cosmic Enforcer... His helmet looks like a Sci-Fi astronaut/Alien kinda cosmic-like
Flipshot: He flips
Optikk: He's got an eyeball for a head...
Webstor: He's a Spider, man!
The Fearless Photog: He's got a camera theme.
The Mighty Spector: Heroic Master of Time Travel. His name evokes a ghost. His appearance evokes a spy/superhero (Deadpool, Snake Eyes)

Then there's the Ace of spades on his chest... What does it have to do with a time traveler? The Spade is a symbol of death. Does this mean that Lt. Toyguru is an assassin now? Sadly the spade is there cause the young Scott Neitlich thought it would be cool to have a spade as an insignia all those years ago.
The only addition he got from design seems to be an iCosmic Key Nano on his left wrist... With a Lightsabre and Laser Whip apps.

Now looking at Spector visually, I would have done TWO Simple things to him that would keep the design virtually the same, BUT it would have given him some cohesion between name, title AND Look!

Thing #1: Changing the Insignia slightly by drawing the outline of a smaller spade near the bottom of the main spade so it looked like two clock hands pointing at 12:00
Thing #2: Give him a Non-Obtrusive Action Feature that could help the Spectre-sounding name be linked to the Time Travel aspect of his title that is reinforced by the Hourhand spades. The Action Feature would have been color-changing like the SDCC version of Orko.

He can "Fade in and out of the timeline"with his Action Feature; has a clock inspired theme WHILE sticking VERY close to Scott's design and connects with the MOTU tradition that links name, look, and action feature.

If it had been up to me I would have played the "Spector/Spectre" thing by giving him a hood and a tattered cape.

Now with that said, Visually he just needed a little "Oomph!" Or in the words of Rainbow Dash: It needs to be 20% Cooler!

His role, Storywise is where the biggest fear lies. SO far all we know about him is based on what Scott Neitlich has said about the character. Hopefully the Bio will ease the fear about Spector replacing He-Man as the main character. He has the potential to rock and the potential to suck! While everything is pointing towards him sucking, I still believe in his potential to be awesome... Kinda like the Twilight Saga... Cool Idea, Horrible execution.





1 comment:

  1. OMG!!!!!!! One good rant on TMS. Can't wait to we get his bio-- since I know you will be add on to this rant when its release!

    Kelly

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